Five Things – 11.09.15 – Sophie’s Choice, Whenever You Choose

1. 1999 A.D. – The Philco-Ford company was very optimistic about 1967’s future. It’s a beautiful one.

This short film takes a look at a family of the future, with all of the bells and whistles that 1999 has to offer. Some of their predictions are pretty accurate, while some are a little far fetched. And the future itself is very, very sixties.

The living room of tomorrow is pretty spot on, including the bored kid watching a gigantic television.

Electronic workstations didn’t exactly pan out just this way. The whole film really seems to miss the mark on the notion that we’d be able to hold impressive computer technology in our hands. As a result the house of the future is completely wired up, with terminals everywhere.

Meals are automatically prepared and sent through the microwave and the dishes are all disposable, as are some of the clothes. The house scans your body for a fitness assessment every day and uploads the information to the local hospital. Musical instruments are weird, as is the music, and video is 3D-capable. You can play video games online. So yeah, some hits and some misses. Most of all it’s bright and optimistic, and lighter on the parent company’s specific contributions to this bright future than most short films like this tend to be. It’s still totally a commercial for Philco-Ford, but it doesn’t really feel like one. Enjoy!

4. Radiation Survival Ad – Fallout 4 comes out this week, and I will soon descend into the bunker with it. In honor of that, here’s an ad for Lafayette Radio’s Radiation Survival Set. Classy touch, putting the mushroom cloud on there.

5. Dining Together – Thanksgiving’s coming up, guys. Here’s a few sedate observations from the 1950s on dining together accompanied with a lingering piano soundtrack to get you all warmed up.